Millimeter-Wave Modulated-Signal and Error-Vector-Magnitude Measurement With Uncertainty

Published

May 1, 2015

Author(s)

Catherine A. Remley, Dylan F. Williams, Paul D. Hale, Chih-Ming Wang, Jeffrey A. Jargon, Youngcheol Park

Abstract

We provide techniques to generate and characterize precision wideband millimeter-wave modulated signals. We use predistortion to obtain a significant improvement in signal quality and an associated reduction in the error vector magnitude (EVM) of the signals generated by an arbitrary-waveform-generator-based source. We adapt a recently developed microwave uncertainty framework to the problem and use it to estimate the uncertainties in the modulated-signal measurements. Models of uncertainties related to all calibration and measurement procedures within the traceability path are included in a sensitivity analysis and Monte Carlo simulations that maintain correlations between time-and frequency-domain errors. We demonstrate EVM values of approximately 1.6% +/- 0.5% for a 1-GSymbol/s 64-state quadrature-amplitude-modulated signal at 44 GHz.

Citation

IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques

Volume

63

Issue

5

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1109/TMTT.2015.2416180

Keywords

Digitally modulated signal, error vector magnitude (EVM), measurement uncertainty, microwave measurement, millimeter-wave wireless communications, oscilloscope, wireless system

Citation

Remley, C. , Williams, D. , Hale, P. , Wang, C. , Jargon, J. and Park, Y. (2015), Millimeter-Wave Modulated-Signal and Error-Vector-Magnitude Measurement With Uncertainty, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, [online], https://doi.org/10.1109/TMTT.2015.2416180 (Accessed October 20, 2025)